The good player, when he plays, must never parry without responding with striking; neither less must he go to strike if he is not secure to parry the response; nor fail to void his body if he does not strike;— Ridolfo CapoFerro

Meta

Among George Silver’s many gripes about the Italian fencing masters of his day was that “Wardes and Gripes, they have none”. Even if the masters did teach grappling, Silver argues, the weapon would be wholly unsuitable for them, “a childish toy wherwith a man can do nothing but thrust, nor that neither, by reason of the length” (Silver, 32). After all, what could one possibly be expected to do with a 40+ inch rapier when one closes? Silver’s condemnation displays more of a lack of imagination on his part than an innate flaw in the rapier, however. Disarms and hilt grappling were common in Destreza and are called movements of conclusion (Curtis). While earlier authors in the Italian tradition often included wrestling and grappling actions, they are relatively sparse in late sixteenth century Italian manuals. As this paper demonstrates, we should not assume that these actions were unused or forgotten, however. The famous Paduan fencing master, Salavtor Fabris (1544-1618), acknowledges the usefulness of grappling, but he describes it as belonging more to the realm of wrestling than to fencing. He says that he prefers to focus on “the proper defenses, the attacks, and in the advantage of the sword” than in coming to grips (Leoni, 14). Fabris’s seeming dismissal of wrestling techniques is at odds with the actual emphasis of his book, however. For someone who claims to feel his book would have been complete without a discussion of grappling and disarms, Fabris spends a considerable amount of time on […]

Introduction This paper will present an analysis of Johann Georg Paschen’s (1628-1678) Kurtze iedoch Deutliche Beschreibung handlend von Fechten auff den Stosz und Hieb (Short though clear description treating of fencing on the thrust and cut) published in 1661 in Sachsen. Paschen was a prolific author: in addition to treatises on fencing, he also published books on wrestling, spears, flags, gymnastics, military fortifications, and cooking (Conan 1). Despite his wide-ranging interests, his fencing text gives little direct information about him and his pedagogical background. In what follows, I will explore how Paschen converges with and diverges with the Italian rapier tradition and how he can provide crucial perspective on period fencing. I will then analyze four of Paschen’s lessons and provide commentary to help fencers recreate the lessons as drills. The text begins with a short introduction and is followed by eight lessons on fencing with the thrust and eight lessons on fencing with cuts. Each lesson consists of a series of individual techniques loosely tied around a unifying theme. Each lesson builds on the previous one and progresses from beginning to advanced techniques. The format of this text makes it important to anyone interested in studying rapier, regardless of whether their focus is on earlier or later texts. The majority of fencing texts from the sixteenth and seventeenth century tend to focus on the underlying principles of fencing, and the examples of technique they include are chosen to illustrate those concepts. While they give us a wealth of information […]